I just finished boxing my radius arms, not too difficult, and i will post pics maybe tomorrow. i also mocked up some bag-plates, or i should say permanently welded some plates onto the radius arms, and i should be able to run an 10" bag with no rubbing, so 8" slams are a shoe-in.

now im faced with a new problem. when i did my mock up, i used the stock radius arm crossmember. when i instal a raised crossmember, will i need to notch my frame to clear the radius arm?

slammedxonair i expect you to know what im talking about, as with my 215/45/17's my radius arm is only 1" from the frame, and the raised crossmember appears to raise the location by about 3 inches.

austin

cant wait to see some pics man, i ordering my arms from my buddy at the for dealership down here, so i dont hafta have my truck down for and extended period or time.

ide need to see pics its hard enought to put a 7 inch bag there doin it right. and also you deffinatly need to mount ur radius arm relocators before you mock up your mounts. and dont forget to put the bags where you can still get your oil filter out :)

You wont need to notch the frame. The relocator moves them OUT as well as UP so they clear everything.

im going to get some more pics today, and post some tomorrow night. i made the plates fairly big, with lots and lots of gussets. slammedx, do you recall how far the center of the bag was out off the frame when you did yours? mine are about 1.5" from the frame to bag center, and if i want to mount different bags, i can move them out like 4 inches.

im 2.3t, and the oil filter is easy to get at with the setup ive used, but i did have to double check to make sure i didnt screw the pooch on my setup.

austin

cant wait to see the pics man, im ready to start mine

hey man please post lots of pics i think this is the way i realy want to go

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post tons of pics

oh and i love the fact that you have a xr4ti engine

im in it for the pics. damn sd mounts left me sittin to low at full lift to clear a 4 inch body drop yet alone the 7 i am going.

where are you mounting the bags? inside the radius arms? i sectioned my radius arms to fit a 7 inch bag. a 6 inch bag can be mounted by just boxing the arms and making a bracket off the inside but if you get bigger than that your gona run into some major clearance issues. you really need to get he radius arm relocators on there before you do anything.

Aren't your mounts gonna be right out of whack once you relocate the radius arms?

Has anyone actually daily driven a radius arm setup for any real length of time? I cant see how it will stand the test of time without some serious beefing up and modification. The bushings are not meant for that kind of articulation, they should have a bar end of sorts grafted on. And the arms themselves are not thick, especially where they bolt to the beam. With all the pressure on the side of the radius arm (not on the center like it should be ideally) you will have a HUGE twisting force on the radius arm. I would be worried about this over time.

I want to try it on a truck, but I think if I did, I would not even be considering using the stock arms..other then to build a jig.

well here's some pics. first off, i know that all the welding isnt done, and i know that the drivers side bag is positioned further back than the passengers. at 80 psi both bags lift the front end with no motor, and with the motor in there are no clearance issues. the drivers bag had to be where it is, and i wanted the passenger bag as far from the turbo downpipe as possible, as i dont want to melt bags. i have tons of pics of both the front and rear, but the rear isnt done yet.


http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01914.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01912.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01911.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01920.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01918.jpg

right
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01919.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01917.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01910.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01909.jpg

oh and 4th pic down, the left weld was done without looking, so if you must, criticize, but only if your an ass, cuz its all going to be smoothed when finished.

austin

Which size bags are the ones in your pictures? They dont look very big but than again pictures lie like that.
No criticism from me. Good start to it

firestone 7" riderite's. they are actually 7.5" when inflated or aired out.

austin

Gotcha. Just tryin to size up the space for larger bags like you mentioned. Preciate it man.

Not sure if its just the angle of the shot or not but you dont looke like you have a while lotta clearance on the left side of the bag area. Ehhh
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h83/LoLifeRanger/DSC01917.jpg

there is over an inch of space between the beam and the bag, and with slams they are actually 8" when inflated or collapsed, so i only need 1/4 inch more space to run the slam HE 8's.

austin

thats hot. now i cant picture the stock beams in my head rite now, but r those arms reversed?

yes they are. you lose some turning radius, but who cares about parking lots when your bagged?

austin

me

No offence, but smoothing out welds doesnt make them a good weld. I wouldnt have even noticed had you not mentioned it.

The part I would be worried about problems arising from is the tabs that connect it to the beam. The twisting effect of the bag at such an offset will probably cause a failure there eventually. It is essentially twisting the arm against the bolt that mounts it to the beam, putting a pretty decent shear force on the bolt, as well as the arm. But I'm sure the arm will fail before the bolt, whether the holes deform, or the tabs themselves start to shear off.

I'm not saying YOUR specific truck, but this is a problem I can see with trucks bagged this way in general.

Why not make a new arm out of 2x2 with a bar end on one end, and a 1/4" bracket to attach it to the beam? With the shorter height of the arm, you may even have enough space to get the bag centered on the bar. Just an idea. Not sure how well it would work though.

when u change you radius arm mounts all the geometry will change.

i think my frame is to low to run a set up like this. are you running the Radius Arm relocators from SD or drop i beams or dream beams? some reason i cant see how this would work. but i dont know im not workin on mine again till saterday so i wont know for sure till then.

No offence, but smoothing out welds doesnt make them a good weld. I wouldnt have even noticed had you not mentioned it.

The part I would be worried about problems arising from is the tabs that connect it to the beam. The twisting effect of the bag at such an offset will probably cause a failure there eventually. It is essentially twisting the arm against the bolt that mounts it to the beam, putting a pretty decent shear force on the bolt, as well as the arm. But I'm sure the arm will fail before the bolt, whether the holes deform, or the tabs themselves start to shear off.

i realize that smoothing them doesnt make them good, yet that weld did penetrate, as i lifted the truck off of the two back welds before i put the gusset inside the frame, although the frame did flex. its just ugly, and i didnt want someone to see that and say 'what a sh!tty job, HACK' (not that anyone on this site is like that... hahaha)

after i read your first responce on the tabs being a weak link, i decided to take a look, and it appears that if i cut a pipe about 1.5" tall in half with the same radius as the tab, then put a long gusset running back from the top and bottom. it should add alot of strength, and it will be clean as well. i will post some pics when i get to that stage.

slammedx, i know it will change, and although my upper bag mounts are solid, i have to alter the passenger side to deal with a bag twisting problem, and when i do i will buy the relocators and do it the right way for the last time. this, however, was... a mock up trial run... that might last until after summer because i want to drive my baby.

dan48p... well... i guess you shouldnt run your bag on a flipped radius arm. i guess to me lift and accessability, clean engine bay, and bags not melting from my turbo heat was a fair trade off.

im working on the back now, and have just finished cutting my frame so i can weld the bottoms to the notch, and then start the 4-link setup.

austin